NatWest "approve purchase in the app" is driving me bananas!

[Pheefifofuckthisshit]

Anytime I try to pay for something on my phone using my NatWest bank card it asks me to approve the payment in the banking app. It never ever works. Every time I approve it, and then the purchase page on whatever website I'm trying to buy from has an error screen when I return to it. It doesn't matter how I navigate in and out of the app. However I do it it just ends in frustration. 😡

Tonight I've ended up powering up my years old laptop to buy some shoes from one site and a kids bed from another because I've been trying all week to buy these on my phone and every time I try it doesn't work.

Has anyone else had this issue?
Is there a magic way to solve it?
I am autistic and my eldest is too, we tend to avoid shopping in an actual shop whenever possible and so this is evoking a very frustrating and frequent problem.

I have the same problem with lloyds. You click on the approve in app message and nothing happens! That’s on an iPhone.

whereas starling works perfectly every time. Bloody love starling. And Monzo also works just fine.

It does sound like a lot of the older banks haven't got it quite right. I have a M&S credit card and the app for that is awful, I use it as less as possible and it always says when I log in that they had to log me out as I didn't when I have logged out every time, absolute crap

It's so annoying. Especially when paying for petrol on the app. Quicker to go in and pay!

At work we have our customers setting up their monthly payments online. Every card payment works except Nat West. Customers are beyond frustrated and we don't really have any answers. Our card processing provider have said they are working on it. Since Jan.

So many replies!

I've tried deleting the app. It still asks me to approve in the app. 🤦

I then reinstalled the app, still the same issue.

It doesn't offer me a text message option to use instead.

I've changed phones about six months ago, different types/brands of android phones and both have had the same problem.

No signal issues everything else works fine that relies on home WiFi or mobile data.

It's so incredibly annoying.

@BT11 I don't mind it asking for verification at all. It's the fact that it doesn't work that's the issue. 🙂

Omg yes! I thought it was just me that it doesn't work for.
It rarely works the first time, sometimes it will work the second time. I've started paying for things by PayPal instead because it's easier!

@Pheefifofuckthisshit hmmm, have you tried updating your phone? If it's none of the issues mentioned above you could speak with NatWest and ask them to look into it/log it as an IT fault. (This may not be their process but worth asking).

I don't work for NatWest, but where I work if all else fails we would raise a fault request and ask IT to check you don't have a technical error with your particular app (rare but does happen).

They might try and ask you to go into branch first and have an employee look at it/speak with IT in your behalf.

Annoying for you! 😞

I get this with my banking app too. Annoying.

I have this with Halifax. Drives me fucking mad. I understand it's for protection etc. but it flags the most pointless charges so I'm not remotely confident in its ability. £400+ online shopping orders go through without having to confirm or authorise anything, £1.30 parking fee in my local town centre and I have to go through the whole bloody rigmarole every single time. The Halifax app often doesn't load correctly, too. Madness.

Hi all, I've had this problem for a long time but just found a way around it. At least it's worked for me so far.
The problem is with the Chrome browser refreshing..... it's not necessarily a NatWest problem ( never thought I'd say the words "NatWest isn't a problem.").
Anyway, I simply downloaded another browser.
In my case I used 'Opera' downloaded from Google play.
The next time I was asked to approve a payment using Chrome and couldn't I then went to opera, opened the site and went through the payment process again, was asked to approve in app, which I did, went back to Opera, and lo and behold, same old problem.....the page had disappeared.
So, I looked in the settings on opera and the default browser was set to Chrome. I changed the browser to Opera, went through the purchase process, approved in the App and when I returned to Opera the page was there waiting for me.
It's worked on two more occasions since.
I do hope this is of help to all you frustrated online shoppers.
Regards
JJ

I'm With NatWest. It's fine with me

I still can't even open the app on my phone - let alone try to approve a payment!

I think you should be able to set an amount, say anything under £10 doesn't require authorisation.

It's really annoying when you are just parking the car for like £2 and it asks you to authorise it. And some apps do and some don't.

I use Apple Pay exclusively now for this reason, I agree it’s an absolute pain - with apple pay it just goes through straight away

what platfrom are you making your purchases on? (app or webpage?) if youre using a webpage what browser on your phone are you using? When you get the "approve in app" notification how do you then navigate to the app? And then how do you navigate back to the purchase page?
I have the natwest app and often have to approve purchases but mostly it works fine. I am usually purchasing from a webpage (although sometimes from an app eg morrisons, argos) when I get the approve in app notificaiton page I simply clisk the home button on phone and from there click on the app, log in and approve. Then click the bottom left button on phone that brings up your open pages and click onto the purchase page that should still be there, then click that you've approved it and you should then be able to continue.

I've switched over to Starling as they are much better, and use Gpay when possible.

Just had an issue though where I locked my card (as I couldn't find it, but was 99% sure it was in the house) then unlocked it, and payments were still being declined.

Hope it's not an ongoing issue as it would be rather inconvenient at this time of year.😱

I get this too. I bank with RBS which is the same company as NatWest, so must be the same platform. It seems to particularly do it with parking apps. Sometimes it works but that's quite rare.

RBS says it's my phone which is the problem, or it's Googlepay, but this was an issue with my old phone too. Upto a couple of years or so ago it was fine, then suddenly changed.

The only solution I've found, as others have, is to use a separate device for the purchase and use my phone for the payment element, or to fish out my MasterCard.

I've nearly switched banks over it because although it's trivial, paying this way is major way that I use my card. However I would want assurances that it wouldn't happen with a different bank.

my problem is with Coop who require a confirmation text message - but I live in a house without mobile phone signal. I have to wait until I’m at work in order to make online purchases. I’m switching to Starling for this reason!

its frustrating I feel like ripping my hair out it's that frustrates me I busted my phone so approving in the app is a no go why can't they send a text or email is beyond me